Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir…

What was the principal wish of the young fir-tree, as expressed in the passage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, express · To what, where: principal wish, passage

This is exam question 2 of lesson 825 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir-tree longs to be tall, is cut down, and is dressed for Christmas» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 wish	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 wish	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 wish	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wish	amod
5	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	11 tree	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 tree	det
8	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 tree	amod
9	fir	fir	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 tree	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 fir	punct
11	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wish	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 expressed	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 expressed	mark
14	expressed	express	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 wish	acl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 passage	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 passage	det
17	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 expressed	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 wish	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal wish				of the young fir tree	tree rules
2	express	participle		the principal wish not said here		the passage			vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

To grow as tall as its companions so that it could see all the way to the sea and the ships

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 grow	mark
2	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 tall	advmod
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 grow	xcomp
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 companions	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 companions	nmod:poss
7	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 grow	obl
8	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	12 see	mark
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 so	fixed
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 see	nsubj
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 see	aux
12	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 grow	advcl
13	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	15 way	det:predet
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 way	det
15	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 see	obj
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 sea	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sea	det
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 see	obl
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 ships	cc
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 ships	det
21	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 sea	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	to-infinitive						as its companions; tall property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	see	could	it	all way				to the sea and the ships	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To grow as tall as its companions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 grow	mark
2	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 tall	advmod
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 grow	xcomp
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 companions	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 companions	nmod:poss
7	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tall	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	to-infinitive						tall property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

To stand as tall as the other trees near it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 stand	mark
2	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 tall	advmod
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 stand	xcomp
5	as	as	ADP	_	8 trees	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 trees	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 trees	amod
8	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 stand	obl
9	near	near	ADP	_	10 it	case
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	to-infinitive				it		as the other trees; tall property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near it=Location

Option 4

To grow as tall as its companions and be chosen for the feast of Christmas

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 grow	mark
2	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 tall	advmod
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 grow	xcomp
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 companions	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 companions	nmod:poss
7	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tall	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 chosen	cc
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 chosen	aux:pass
10	chosen	choose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 grow	conj
11	for	for	ADP	_	13 feast	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 feast	det
13	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 chosen	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 Christmas	case
15	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 feast	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	to-infinitive						tall property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	choose	infinitive · passive						for the feast of Christmas	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: for feast=Beneficiary

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/825-pg27200-part36/e2/